So, why isn’t the Diamond T finished yet?

It’s not like I’m not working on it, it’s just that I haven’t been able to stop having fun doing other things! As you can see, the box is back on the truck, the rear fenders, ’35 Auburn speedster, are glued on with bondo, and the mounting lip is now curing under the fender. I’d taped some tinfoil to the box sides, waxed it, and layed up several layers of mat to the underside of the fender/box to make the lip. Now that it’s all layed up, when it’s cured I’ll drill mounting holes from the inside of the box, pop the fender off and trim up the raggedy edge.

The fenders will still need a couple of layers of cloth/mat over the entire inner surface as they’re SO thin, but, it’s coming. I did glass up the cracks in both beads, so they’re not broken. It does look like crap with the glass reinforced filler/glue holding the fenders to the box sides, but it worked.

The tools for this messy work, fiberglassing, are simple. A plastic paint tray to mix up the resin, some nitrile exam gloves, and cheapo paint brushes to spread resin and tap out air bubbles. It is however frustrating and messy. I have trouble getting the proper mix of resin and hardener, and have thrown out several batches of resin which immediately turn to gelatinous glop. Odd, since I am weighing the resin and counting the supposed correct number of drops of hardener. It’s tricky, or else I’m not as exact as I think I am… I did have to trim some hardened resin from my hair today too. Glenn Plake should try that on his Mohawk!

We’ve been camping the past two weeks at Gun Lake, at the state park, and both worked during that time, so we’ve been busy having fun as well as working. Craig came home for the Labor Day weekend, and we really had fun, despite a pretty chilly/windy Saturday.

We managed to get all of our toys to the campground, as the picture shows, including the Chris Craft, which, while it didn’t sink, did leave us stranded in the middle of the lake with a dead battery. When I thought about it, I realized the battery is (was) at least 14 years old, so, other than being inconvieniant, and having to be towed in, it wasn’t a big deal. A new battery and cleaning all the contacts and connections fixed it right up.

I went up to Kirk Brown’s (Crafty B) shop on Friday for coffee and doughnuts, the first time I’d been up there. Great time, met some nice people, and of course, spent some $$. I’d been thinking about what kind of gas filler cap for the Diamond T, and ended up buying one of Crafty’s really cool locking gas caps for it, and an aluminum Auburn (’35, like the fenders) hood ornament. It was fun.

Spent some time today making some windlace for the interior of the ’36, I want to go to the Nat’s North in Kazoo on Friday, and this has been bothering me. So, that’s done.

Of course, none of this answers the original question, why isn’t the truck done? I guess it DOES answer the question, if I think about it. The truck doesn’t NEED to be done, in fact, what it really needs is to not be finished hurriedly after this much time and effort. I’ve spent a year working on it in earnest, and collecting the “right’ parts, no point rushing in now.

There are also a garage full of other toys that ARE finished, and we enjoy using them, so I don’t really want to spend every free moment working on the truck. It’s supposed to be fun, after all. I’m still enthused about it, sticking with the plan, have most of the pieces I need to get it together, and funds to do it the way I want.